Judge Blocks Obama’s Amnesty – Could it be Stopped Forever?

On Monday federal judge Andrew Hanen blocked President Obama’s Amnesty Executive Order from going into effect, saying, “Once these services are provided there will be no effective way of putting the toothpaste back in the tube should the plaintiffs ultimately prevail.”

His decision came down in response to a lawsuit filed by Texas Governor Greg Abbott (who was the Attorney General of Texas when he filed the lawsuit) which challenged President Obama’s order that would have given blanket amnesty to some 5 million illegal aliens and kept the authorities from deporting these lawbreakers back to their countries of origin.

(As a side note, this ruling perfectly illustrates what Justice’s Thomas and Scalia said about the gay marriage ruling of federal Judge Callie Granade. The dissenting Supreme Court justices argued that gay marriages in Alabama should have been halted until the case was resolved in the Supreme Court – instead Judge Granade forced Alabama to allow marriages that may once again be ruled illegal once the case is firmly decided.)

The White House seemed unsurprised by the ruling and expects the amnesty to move forward once the legal issues are concluded. In a statement from the Obama administration they said, “The Supreme Court and Congress have made clear that the federal government can set priorities in enforcing our immigration laws—which is exactly what the President did when he announced commonsense policies to help fix our broken immigration system.”

In an interesting twist to the ruling blocking amnesty, Fox News’ Judge Andrew Napolitano argues that the ruling could actually block President Obama’s amnesty order “forever”! Unless an appeals court decides to overturn Judge Hanen’s injunction, it is very likely that the case will take more than two years to wind its way through the appeals process. By that time President Obama will be out of office and the next President may well decide that amnesty is not the route to go.

About the author

Onan Coca

Onan is the Editor-in-Chief at Liberty Alliance media group. He's also the managing editor at Eaglerising.com, Constitution.com and the managing partner at iPatriot.com. You can read more of his writing at Eagle Rising.
Onan is a graduate of Liberty University (2003) and earned his M.Ed. at Western Governors University in 2012. Onan lives in Atlanta with his wife and their three wonderful children.